Rumblings xtra: Items that didn't make print edition

Legendary Auctions has former Crew player Edson Buddle’s 2002 U.S. Open Cup
championship in an on-line auction with a minimum bid of $500. The description accompanying it says
“The 10K-gold, size-10 ring features a distinctive yellow stone and exhibits Near Mint condition. A
2009 purchase LOA is included.” The bidding ends on Nov. 21.

There are six frequently asked questions on the www.firstenergystadiumproject.com
website, but none of them concern who will pay for the $120 million in improvements announced this
week for Cleveland Browns Stadium.

The Browns have qualified for an NFL loan for $62.5
million, but team CEO Joe Banner was asked several times at the press conference to announce the
project if the city of Cleveland will be asked to finance part of the project and he doggedly
refused to answer.

His reason and/or excuse?

He said he did not want to release that information to
the media before he gave the official proposal to Mayor Frank Jackson and the Cleveland City
Council.

Most of the changes to the stadium are cosmetic – two
enormous video boards are at the heart of the project – so the taxpayers’ horror at the possibility
of being stuck with all or part of the costs are understandable.

It’s still early, but Tribe starter Justin Masterson can become a free agent after
the 2014 season and there is already speculation over what it might take for the Indians to re-sign
him. Mlbtraderumors.com estimates Masterson might need a five-year deal worth between $65 million
and $85 million for the Indians keep him away from free agency.

Randy Rowley, Masterson’s agent, told Cleveland.com
that he understands the team has other issues to deal with first.

“We’re not in any hurry,” Rowley said. “We have to wait
and see what the market is going to be. There is going to be an increase of dollars from the
national TV contracts. I have an idea it will be a lucrative year for free agents.”

Two members of the Indians rotation, Ubaldo Jimenez and
Scott Kazmir, are already part of that free agent market, Jimenez having turned down the Indians’
$14.1 million qualifying offer..

Masterson, 28, is one of nine Indians eligible for
arbitration. Eligible players can file on Jan. 14 and exchange salary numbers with their teams on
Jan. 17. He avoided arbitration last season by signing a one-year deal worth $5,687,500.

If it seems like Gregg Berhalter almost magically appeared as the Crew’s coach and
director of soccer when he was hired from Hammarby IF in Sweden, there was more behind his hiring
than an interview where he reportedly blew the team’s new owner, Anthony Precourt, away.

One of those who has Precourt’s ear is longtime Crew
star Frankie Hejduk, the team’s so called “brand ambassador.” Hejduk played with Berhalter on
both the Los Angeles Galaxy and the U.S. national team and they are close friends. Since the move
was made, Hejduk had offered high praise of his friend’s work.

Hejduk didn’t make the hire, obviously, but he was a
voice the team’s brass heard during the process.

Jay Bell’s hiring as new Reds manager Bryan Price’s bench coach comes as no
surprise. He told MLB.com that when Price seemed in line to become the Miami Marlins manager a year
ago, he had agreed to become his bench coach. The Marlins hired Mike Redmond instead.

Bell and Price spent four years together with the
Arizona Diamondbacks. When Bob Melvin was the manager in 2006, Bell was the bench coach and Price
was the pitching coach.

It took a close friendship to lure Bell away from the
Pirates, where he was a two-time All-Star shortstop from 1989-96.

"I'm really excited about working for Bryan. It's going
to be a really good thing," Bell said. "I'll miss being in Pittsburgh, for sure; there's such a
great group of men in that clubhouse I have a lot of respect for. But this opportunity was really
nice."

Bengals coach Marvin Lewis was put on the spot during a conference call with the
Cleveland news media this week. He was asked given Paul Brown’s affiliation with both the Cleveland
Browns and Cincinnati Bengals, where a statue of the legendary coach should be placed.

“You’re trying to get me in trouble?” a laughing Lewis
said.

Lewis has been coach of the Bengals since 2002, so the
Brown family has been his employer all that time.

“[Answering] politically,” Lewis said, “there would be
two, right?”

Given that Brown founded both franchises that would
make sense, but. . .

“Put a statue up there on the lake,” Lewis said. “You
would have to put it outside the stadium in Cleveland, wouldn’t ya? I just think (because) he
started with the Cleveland Browns and (he got) football going there like he did, and at the
standard and the level it was played at when he was there.”

Besides, Lewis noted, the Bengals play in Paul Brown
Stadium in Cincinnati.

Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger spent part of his week addressing an NFL
Network report about his unhappiness with the franchise and his possible desire for a trade during
the off-season. He wasn’t happy about it.

He answered questions about it both to the team’s beat
reporters in the Pittsburgh locker room and on a conference call with Detroit reporters. The
Steelers play the Lions on Sunday.

“To me it’s about this game and things like that take
away from this team and what we’re trying to do,” Roethlisberger told reporters in Pittsburgh. “It’s
a non-issue with me because it’s silly so it’s not worth addressing, and to me the focus is on
this week and the Detroit Lions.”

He addressed it again on the conference call.

“It’s so ridiculous,” Roethlisberger said. “I
just talked to our guys that I’m not even going to address it because what it does is it takes away
from what we’re trying to do and that’s win this football game and that’s all that matters to me.
So to me, it makes me so mad I don’t even want to address it anymore.”